A serendipitous stretch of N.B.A. schedule in March allowed Mike D’Antoni to be in the building when his brother Dan coached Marshall University to the school’s first N.C.A.A. tournament berth in 31 years. Mike D’Antoni’s Houston Rockets happened to be in Dallas on the same weekend that Dan’s Thundering Herd won the Conference USA championship game in nearby Frisco, Texas.
“He rejoiced as much as I did,” Dan D’Antoni said.
Dan D’Antoni reciprocated late Tuesday night with some remote cheerleading from a conference meeting in Florida as the Rockets produced the shock of the N.B.A. season by winning a 95-92 grindfest on the Golden State Warriors’ home floor, where the Warriors hadn’t lost a playoff game since Game 7 of the 2016 N.